The Onion AV Club Hates on Hipsters Who Hate on Other Hipsters

Download: LCD Soundsystem - "Losing My Edge"

The Onion AV Club has a fantastic article about the absurdity and hypocrisy of hipsters who hate on other hipsters. You can read it for yourself, in its entirety, here. It was inspired by Time Out New York's piece about how hipsters must die, which I blogged about here. However, before you do so, check out this choice quote from Steve Hyden's article:

Hipster-hating hipsterism is to the ’00s what anti-political correctness was to the ’90s, on a somewhat smaller scale. Anti-political correctness began as an inevitable backlash against left-wing censorship on college campuses and in elite intellectual circles, and grew into an insufferable, all-purpose complaint used to justify the existence of self-consciously dumb entertainment like The Man Show and Fox News. Similarly, hipster-hating has gone from being a standard and relatively benign mainstay of Internet message boards to an obnoxious, ubiquitous lament no longer on speaking terms with good sense.

I couldn't have said it any better myself. Reading this article made me reflect upon Yoko Ono's performance at the Pitchfork Music Festival (I know, I know. We'll have our coverage up soon). Because as godawful, inexplicable, and annoying as Yoko's performance was on Saturday night, Yoko's baby-boomer haters are even more godawful, more inexplicable and more annoying. I more than understand why someone would dislike Yoko Ono's music (a brief summation of her Saturday night performance: "Confusion! Confusion! WAAAAaaa! WAAaAAAAAaA! WaaaaAAAAaAAAaaa! I love you"). But sweet Christ on a cracker, if I have to hear about how she "broke up the Beatles" one more time, I'm going to vote Republican.

The Beatles broke up nearly 40 years ago. Before that time, they had evolved from poppy, melodious hitmakers to one of the most experimental, influential bands ever. By the end of that time, though, band tensions were to the point where breaking up the band was an inevitable course of action. Yoko Ono may have had something to do with speeding up that inevitability. Again, this was 40 years ago. There have been many developments in the world of popular music. Might I suggest the following groups who have followed in The Beatles' footsteps: Of Montreal, The Flaming Lips, My Bloody Valentine, Big Star, Badfinger, Nirvana...the list goes on and on and on. However...if you still think that it was all Yoko's fault, then allow me to invoke the immortal words of renowned philosopher Judd Nelson's On School Mandated Detention (The Club of Breakfast): B-O-O...H-O-O.

I feel the exact way about hipster-hating-hipsters that I do about Yoko Ono's critics. They both have valid points, but because their criticism is, in essence, a completely knee-jerk reaction, their vehemence totally undermines any valid thoughts that may have legitimized that criticism in the first place.

Because as annoying as it is for someone to be conceited about their own taste in music or cinema, it's even more conceited for someone else to assume that just because a person dresses a certain way, or listens to certain music, that that person is automatically conceited about what they listen to or watch.

Anywho, those are my two cents. How do you feel about all of this, dear readers?

(Jonathan Graef)